The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

UNIVERSITY of The Bahamas assistant professor Dr Nicolette Bethel has written to the chair of UB’s board of trustees to insist that appointing a foreigner as president of the university would be a “grave insult”.

Dr Bethel noted that six weeks have passed since shortlisted candidates visited the college yet no decision has been announced.

She wrote: “Could it be that the board wishes to engage a non-Bahamian, and, to avoid the inevitable public outcry that will ensue, has chosen to announce their selection after September 16? Dr Sarim Al-Zubaidy, an Iraqi-Irish New Zealander, is already in place as executive vice president, having been hired over the objections of the unions and the faculty.

“Can it be that the board of trustees is contemplating the unconscionable: to give both top executive positions in the University of The Bahamas — whose mission is to drive national development — to non-Bahamians?

“The engagement of a non-Bahamian to head our national university would be a grave insult. It would be an insult to the faculty, who made it plain to the presidential search consultants during their initial (and only) meeting that they wanted to be led by a Bahamian.

“It would be an insult to the administrators, staff and students of the University of The Bahamas; to the alumni of the college and the university; and to its founders and builders, among them my mother and uncle, Oxbridge graduates who worked to establish a university that would both serve and represent the Bahamian people. It would be an even graver insult to the Bahamian people.”

UB’s board of trustees appointed a presidential search committee in November 2020 to establish the process by which a new president will be selected and hired. The new president will succeed Dr Rodney Smith.

Dr Bethel said: “As both the university and the country approach half a century of existence, is it possible that the board of trustees of our national university have confidence only in men from other countries to lead us?

“How can it be right in 2021 that foreign men are considered to be the best people to prepare the next generations of Bahamian graduates to serve and build our nation? Can it be that, as far as the board of trustees is concerned, there is not one administrator within or graduate from the College/University of The Bahamas qualified, experienced, or trustworthy enough to lead it?

“Ours is a sovereign nation where individuals have given their careers to educate and inspire their fellow countrymen. It is a nation which has created people such as Dr Linda Davis, Dr Olivia Saunders, Dr Ian Strachan and others, all of whom have striven to achieve and risen to the level where they can lead the national university. Not all wish to take that task on.

“But for those who desire to do so, for those who, like Dr Strachan in particular, have the knowledge and the passion to craft a vision attuned to the challenges and needs of our nation, to reject their applications in favour of foreign men from cultures far removed from ours would be a deep betrayal of all those who love, serve and believe in Bahamians and The Bahamas. It would be an error for the nation.

“It would also be a betrayal of the age in which we live, an age which globally has begun at long last to recognise the structural and embedded inequities that afflict women and men of colour. As other institutions seek to engage individuals whose backgrounds and experiences are indicative of the heterogeneous world in which we live, whose desire is to find ways to redress the historic oppression of women and people of colour, how is it that the board of trustees of the national university of a majority black postcolonial nation seem to think that the only people suitable to lead it are men from cultures far removed from our own?

“I write on behalf of my mother, my uncle, and all the people who believed, with the founding of the College and University of The Bahamas, that Bahamians could stand toe-to-toe with anyone else anywhere else in the world. Is it time to challenge the board of trustees of the university for a lack of vision, lack of belief in Bahamians, and lack of support for The Bahamas as a nation?

“It grieves me to write this letter, because I love and respect so many of you. But I believe that you would be deeply, deeply wrong to ignore the contribution of the Bahamians who have served this institution and this country for a generation or more. I cannot stand by and watch. This letter begins my protest. From here I go to gather other voices.”

Dr Bethel’s letter was also signed by Edward Bethel, director of open learning at UB.

In July, UB announced the finalists for the school’s president search had been narrowed down to three candidates: Dr Erik Rolland, Sir Anthony Seldon and Dr Ian Strachan, the latter being the only Bahamian in the group.

Dr Smith’s contract expires in 2022.